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Daily Archives for January 7, 2011

As the season’s been winding down, I’ve been completing shows left and right, closing in on anime number 200. As is, instead of writing a shit load of separate reviews, I’m just going to culminate everything into one review, which will mainly feature shows that I watched from Fall 2010. How big is this post? I’ve got a fucking table of contents out this mutha fucka:

Ore no Imouto

The World God Only Knows

Kuragehime

Motto To LOVE-ru

Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt

Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls

Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin

Aria the Animation

In that order. This is a post so big that the shear size has not been seen since…well….the Review of Everything. I should have named this post the Review of Everything Else, but alas…you know what I AM going to give this post that name! Anyway…

Ore no Imouto

Clearly, the best character from Ore no Imouto was the mom. Once she made fun of her son for porn, it was a no-contest. Her sarcasm was just beautiful.

What is there to say? At first, I was impressed that the character of Kiririririririririririririririririririn seemed to be hit right on the head. Dead on. The fact is, anyone who has a younger sister knows that they are all bitches. They bitch, they manipulate. They’re really really annoying. And this was certainly the case with Kiririririririiririririrririririririririn from Ore no Imouto.

But then they kind of overdid it. And by kind of, I of course mean, “holy fucking shit they really over did it.”

Most younger sisters are certainly bitches, but not to the same level of bitchiness that Kiriririririririeorioerrion is. She’s a 90% bitch 100% of the time. Younger sisters are annoying enough, the last thing I need is a super annoying sister bitching about literally everything whenever she gets facetime.

Of course, she didn’t bitch the whole time. When she wasn’t bitching, she was attempting to play it off that she was a tsundere character, which she was not (or at the very least, a poorly made one). She was more like a Tsuntsuntsunderrrrrre. She was 3 times as bitchy, but when she was dere, she was far too much dere for her character’s personality, so that her whole character just came off as fake and commercialized. Honestly, a good tsundere has to have balance between the tsun and the dere. Kiriririirososei3-*#&(irgnIn had too much of each, and no connectivity between the two, which was the major flaw with this show.

Bitch.

The other flaw was that incest is bleecchh.

The other flaw was the last episode. It had what I believe to be the funniest moment, when Kousuke’s friend is buying some gay manga for his sister, and the two of them get an applause from the fujoshi, but it also had:

“Oh, btw, I’m going to America. I told everyone I know, but you didn’t need to know because shit, you’ve only been protecting my secret and saving my fucking social life for the past months. When am I leaving? Oh, tomorrow.”

I love it when some random shit gets thrown into the end of a show to try and create some drama. What a load of shit.

That being said, the overall show wasn’t bad, and I found slightly more than half of the episodes enjoyable. It did have a lot of good points, and they can best be described in the credits from the final episode:

It deserves a better grade than a 3 anyway.

FINAL GRADE = 4

P.S. Kuroneko is overrated as a character.

The World God Only Knows

Kanon is my favorite character from this season, I'll get into why in just a bit.

I discovered the manga, and was in the process of completely manhandling it, when I learned that an anime had een announced. I was quite happy to hear this, as I had found the manga to be both awesome and awesome. I then learned that J.C. Staff was producing said show, and became even happier, as I seem to like most shows that J.C. Staff put out (everyone else seems to hate them…..maybe I just like them because of their association with Rie Kugimiya).

After a few episodes, I wasn’t too sure how I liked the adaptation. I thought that they bungled a lot of the good aspects from the manga, the most important aspect (for me) was when Keima would triumphantly declare that he could “already see the ending.” I pictured this phrase being said in an overdramatic tone. That was certainly the best way to do it, I mean, it’s his fucking catch phrase for God’s sake! But instead, whenever his famous line was said, it was always portrayed as kind of an offhand comment.

I found a few other faults in the show’s enjoyment level in general, but after the arc with the poor girl who pretends she’s still rich (name completely forgotten), the show did a 180 degree turn around (well, it really wasn’t that bad to start, so more of just a 90 degree turn), and became very good. The next two arcs I found to be not only awesome, but awesome, and such, all was forgiven.

The first was the Idol arc, where Keima must get popular Idol Kanon Nakagawa to fall for him. Instead, I found that I fell for Kanon Nakagawa. Well, not really, but she did turn out to be my favorite character. She had soooo much shit packed into her character that it was unreal. I already mentioned why she was awesome once before, but I’ll list the reasons just to fill some space:

She was so retarded it was awesome.

She was part stalker.

Part OCD.

Part Airhead.

Part Psycho.

Really insecure.

Could turn invisible*.

She was still, despite all of this, somehow an Idol.

*sort of.

Perfection in a character. For me, you could take just one of most of these listed traits (except airhead and retarded [looks at K-On]) and it would be enough to make a character awesome. But Kanon has all of them. Bad ass.

Then came a stupid filler episode where Elsie bakes a cake. However, it was the best stupid episode I may have ever seen, due to it’s set up. It had the same event shown from 4 different perspectives, which is pretty cool directing, and if there’s one thing I like, it’s cool directing. It was still stupid though.

Ergo Proxy? The anime was awesome, that's all I know on the subject.

Then came the library arc, featuring the best “shy-type” character I’ve ever seen (because we get to hear what she’s thinking, pretty cool if you ask me). It was filled with greatness, and I found that, after a rough beginning, I was generally please with the series. There was one more filler episode about gaming that was stupid, but it’s not a big deal. Both of the filler eps might have even been in the manga, I can’t remember though.

FINAL GRADE = 5

Kuragehime

This ^ is the best OP of the year. Maybe ever. It’s Chatmonchy. For the record, that fact alone makes me want to give this anime a 5 at least. Of course, when I watched the actual anime, I decided that this particular show was deserving of a 5 regardless of the OP.

Without a doubt in my mind. Kuragehime was one of the best anime of the year. It had everything I could ask for.

Yes the characters. My weak spot. Show me a show with awesome characters, and I’ll show you my approval. Or penis. Or both. Either way, you’ll be happy, so don’t complain. The characters in Kuragehime each had their own fetishes and unique aspects, which gave me a real hard dick throughout my watching experiance. Anything from trains to old men to Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Kuragehime didn’t skimp on the characters. What it DID skimp on, however, was the ending.

What the fuck was with that ending? Was anything really solved? Sure, I guess the whole “selling of the building” issue was solved, but even that seemed to just be a hurried conclusion. All of a sudden, Chieko’s mom comes back and says, “Oh I’m not going to sell anymore.” 10 episodes of plot build up solved in 1 minute. It’s as if the producers/writers/directors all decided that they no longer cared about the show at the last second, and just threw something in there to be able to call it an ending, which is wasn’t. There were several insinuations (InarixShuu is going to happen, as I predicted), but that’s just not enough.

I say, second season or riot in the streets. Who’s with me? RIOT!!!!!

Despite how I feel about the ending, I still loved every second of this show, and it still gets a

Motto To LOVE-ru

Tell me again someone….why….no wait….how did I ever find the first season of this show enjoyable? Like……really?

This second season, while doing a good job of displaying Yui’s awesomeness, did a bad job of pretty much everything else. I found that it decreased the humor and increased the blatancy and retardedness of the fanservice. However, in the first season, I thought that the fanservice was funny. In this season, it was pretty much just stupid and annoying.

I also didn’t care for the new characters, or anything much in particular. I mean, sure there were some episodes that were funny, but as a whole, it was just stupid and dumb (which was expected), and not really all that funny.

THAT being said, the fact that they were attacked by the boss from the water temple in the last episode was pretty funny.

FINAL GRADE = 4

Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt

In his right hand: a gun. In his left hand: A pink dildo. Overall? A strange yet accurate reference to From Dusk Till Dawn.

You know a show is good when it references all sorts of American things, from Tom Cruise to South Park to From Dusk Till Dawn to Ren and Stimpy.

You know a show is great when it includes very crude humor, sexual jokes, fart jokes, extensive Engrish swearing, and plenty use of the word “Fuck” for no reason other than to just use it.

You know a show is fantastic when it does all of these things with an animation style that is remeniscent of the Powerpuff Girls.

Going by this, you must reach the conclusion that Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt is fantastically awesome, incredibly unique, and surprisingly fresh.

Before I had started this anime, I remember thinking to myself,

“What the fuck is this shit? The animation style is more American than anime! I don’t like this at all. If I wanted to watch something like this, I’d watch Cartoon Network!”

Then I watched it anyway, and realized that this shit just fucking rocked. The animation in the first episode was fucking awesome, and the content was even better. Not only was every single episode funny as shit (and some times, literally about shit), but I found the to also be packed with fast moving, awesomely abstract animation that blew my mind.

Besides the animation was the content. Nothing got old, there wasn’t as much repetition in jokes as you’d think, and, most importantly, the use of engrish throughout was awesome. I could watch an anime all day if the characters said, “Fuck!” every other second.

If that wasn’t enough, it even had a crazy, twist at the end that even Abraham Lincoln, who could read the future, wouldn’t have seen coming. And I know what you’re thinking. If Abe Lincoln could see the future, wouldn’t he have no gone to see that play? Well it’s his wife’s fault, she literally dragged him to the play, and then, half way through, he just didn’t care anymore. The play was pretty shitty,

Anyway, watch this shit.

FINAL GRADE = 5*

Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls

Enoguh with the fucking ink blots!

Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls has a lot to offer.

The animation was unique; I had certainly not seen anything like it. It reminded me of a picture book, except with motion. Definitely unique.

Rie Kugimiya voicing a short, flat chested girl.

Characters and names from feudal Japan, such as Yukimura Sanada, and Tokugawa. Also, the designs of this world was feudal, yet it was placed in the present day (technology and time period says present day)

The way that the censoring was done actually matched with the style of animation, and it looked cool. It was still annoying as fucking hell though.

Girl with eye patch.

hahahaha

The ink blots. At times, they would take up the entire screen to hide a nipple. What the fuck is up with that? Also, sometimes underwear would be censored, other times the audience would get a big old flash of ass. Where the logic in that? I’ll never understand Japanese censorship issues. I also just found out that Facebook is apparently illegal in Japan. Holy shit Japan sucks.

The one extremely minute problem I had with HRSG was in the final episode. They would give Jubei their “feelings”, and then she would get stronger. Well, this repeated itself over and over. They would give her more feelings. Then more. Then more. Okay, we get it, feelings and that shit. Whatever, who gives a fuck?

What I DID like about the last episode was that Jubei stayed dead. She didn’t show up a week later at the dojo. Sometimes in shows like this, people come back from the dead just to make a happy ending. But personally, I’m glad Jubei is dead, because I hated that bitch.

Samurai Jubei was awesome. She kicked serious ass. However, she was rarely used, usurped by the ever more present Airhead Jubei. I hate airhead characters. They suck. Airhead Jubei reminded me a lot of Lala from To LOVE-ru. Lala sucks. Subsequently, the recent season of To LOVE-ru wasn’t that good either. The thing about airheads is that they’re primarily used in fanservice anime, because only an airhead would take off their clothes for no real reason, and not understand why it’s retarded. Airhead Jubei kept ruining downgrading the anime whenever she opened her mouth. She would constantly make me feel the fanservice-ness of HRSG, and while Hyakka Ryouran was technically a fanservice anime, it never really felt like one, even with Matabei Goto’s absolutely outstanding backside being thrust around all over the place. Man that is a nice ass.

Look at that thing. Unreal.

Matabei was awesome because she wore a loincloth, and any loin-cloven character gets an A in my book. But here’s a question: How come they would censor underwear that fully covered an ass, but this loincloth, while awesome in it’s own right, was never censored, even though it covered pretty much nothing? Just saying.

In the end, I found that everything was awesome in Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls. Wish they went a little easier on the censoring, but still, it was better than Queen’s Blade…..well, maybe on par with Queen’s Blade…..I enjoyed it anyway.

FINAL GRADE = 5*

Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin

Smile is clearly my favorite character. He beats people down with a massive wrench. I kinda liked the weird girl (pictured below) and the slutty vice principal.

I love shows that involve time travel. They’re almost always awesome…..unless they defy the laws of time travel. I’ve said this 1029482929 times, but you can’t go back in time to change the present. IE: A person from the year 2011 could not go back in time and stop WWII. This is a fact, because history in retrospect to 2011 tells us that WWII has indeed happened. The present won’t just change as if by magic.

That being said, they’re could be some exceptions, depending on what is and isn’t present in a select world. For example, if God comes down from Heaven and tells you: “If you change the past, it will alter the future.” then okay. If magic makes it possible to alter the present, then okay. But in reality, none of this exists so go fuck yourself.

In Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin, magic does indeed exist. Mages, espers….pretty much everything that Haruhi would LOVE is in this anime. However, they still fuck up time travel.

Spoiler spoiler; In SOG, they change the future by altering the past, and impossibility. Normally I would hate this, but the show in itself was pretty damn good, so despite this plot-hole in the final episode, I’d say I enjoyed it a lot. In fact, if not for this plot-hole, I would’ve graded it higher. Let’s delve:

A majority of the episodes were episodic in nature. Mainly those in the middle of the anime, which in most cases would characterize the anime as being a “donut anime”. The beginning and end were good, but everything was lacking in the middle. However, the episodic episodes in the middle weren’t shitty. In fact, they were pretty good. Not only that, but they included just enough of the continuous plot for me to not completely lose interest. In those regards, I say kudos Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin. Kudos.

Yup, the plot-holes.

Now for the plot-holes. They botched time travel, and at the same time, they got it right. In the final episode, Bunmi exclaims something along the lines of: “Wait a second, my past self is coming to the school tomorrow? I don’t remember coming to the school!” This would seemingly back up my views on time travel (which are FUCKING CORRECT). Then later, he changes history, an act which contradicts the previous statement (in a round-a-bout sort of way). Now this is all good and dandy, because I wanted a happy ending, but then we get back to the “future” (which, technically, was the present setting for the anime. I mean, the majority of this anime was set in the past.).

Anyway, in the present, Maya’s dad suddenly steps outside of the trailer that he was in, and then it magically has turned into a store on a busy street corner that wasn’t there 5 minutes ago. not only that, but how come only the people in the trailer seem to have memories of the world being destroyed at some point? No, No, No, this makes no sense at all!

Other than that, a very good series. could have been a 5*, but instead it gets a

FINAL GRADE = 5

Aria the Animation

If I could work for one of these companies, Akira's company would be the one. She can push you, and she'll make you good. She's no pussy, and that's why she's my favorite character.

Well, after being asked to watch and again asked to finish by Baka-Raptor, I’m pleased to say I’m finally done with Aria the Animation. Very, very, very, very pleased. What a boring, boring, boring show this was.

Most people will say that it’s calming and soothing, and okay, I can see that, but most of the time, I was just bored. Even the seiyu sounded bored. For the most part, the characters showed little to no change in emotion throughout the show. I mean, fuck they even talk like they’re slow in the head. The only time there seems to be anything slightly exciting or cool is when Akira shows up. She was one of the few bright spots in the anime, along with Athena (who is awesome), Alicia (who’s okay), Aika (who has one line that she beats like a dead horse), and the OP, which has fantastic singing, and really started to grow on me. And what the fuck? Does every character have the same fucking name? They all begin with the letter “A”. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW FUCKING CONFUSING THAT IS!? A LITTLE BIT!!! Anyway, I really enjoyed the opening, so I’m just going to talk about that.

The OP is splendid. I just got finished talking about wanting some unique OPs, and Aria does not disappoint. The openings change with each episode, because, frankly, there are no openings. The opening song along with the credits are mixed into the actual episodic content. Sometimes there is talking happening, but most of the time it just serves as a way to introduce the setting of the specific episode, and the singing is really great, I kid you not:

I only really realized the fantasticness of the OP during the last two episodes, unfortunately. Same thing with the ED, which is pretty damn good. Good singing BAM. In fact, the whole soundtrack to this show wasn’t bad, I’ll give it that. It wasn’t the same fucking song over and over, like Kaichou wa Maid-sama, which really sucks. In fact, it makes Aria actually seem brilliant. Literally, I’m thinking about that shitfest of a show, and Aria is 30485 times better. Gah! Maybe Aria the Animation really wasn’t that bad.

Fuck that it was. And here’s another thing. President Aria. What the fuck? That’s a cat? Really? Are you sure? I’ve never seen such a weird looking creature in my life. The rest of the cats in this anime look like cats, so what does that say about President Aria? I’ll tell you what. Birth Defects. Don’t let pregnant cats do drugs people, it’s wrong. Anyway, I had a screen shot that I took of President Aria on my computer for the better half of a year, just so I could use it for this review, and then, a few weeks ago, my computer crashed, so I no longer have that picture. What great timing. Anyway, President Aria looked really offensive in it (he looked fucking stupid). Give the cat some credit though, at least he’s interesting. In fact, I’d say I generally like the President. He was probably one of my top 5 favorite characters. He just looks odd, that’s all.

This is a cat? In the picture I had, he was wearing some kind of rain gear. It just looked dumb.

I can see why some people would like this show, but it’s really just not for me, even if it does on occasion have awesome facial expressions that I love. Too laid back and yawn-inducing. Also, the first episode made me want baked potatoes, and now whenever I watch this fucking show I get a craving for some God damn potatoes, In fact, I just ate some potatoes not too long ago, and now I want more. FUCK. Anyway, I’ll continue with the next season, because I hear it kicks more ass than Bill the Ass-Kicker, but as for this season, it got a gondola shoved right up it’s ass.

Aria the Natural BETTER be fucking good because its 26 God damn episodes.

FINAL GRADE = 3 (a high three)

EDIT:Watched the first episode of Aria the Natural. It was actually good. Awesome OP and ED too. In fact, the ending might be one of the best I’ve heard. It’s definitely in my top ten from anime endings. Probably top 5. Like….this is fantastic, I literally LOVE this song. It’s worth it to watch ARIA just to discover this song.

Actually, wait a second. I recall that I used to AA this song on Stepmania all the time. Fuck I KNEW it sounded familiar. God I wish I still had Stepmania. I’m too lazy to download all of the song I had again though. Takes too long.

And there you have it. This post was still about 2000 words shorter than my Review of Everything. That post was a beast.